Rusko opět „slovanské“? České rusofilství a pozitivní obraz Sovětského svazu v posledních letech první republiky

After the creation of Czechoslovakia it is possible to track the decrease in interest in Russia, for, with, the exception of the chairman of the National Democratic Party, Karel Kramář and his supporters, it disappeared from Czech thought as a traditional fixed point. However, nationally-motivated interest in Russia returned to Czech thinking in the 1930s in connection with Adolf Hitler’s accession to the chancellery and the growing pressure from Nazi Germany. The traditional image of Russia as a “massive oak tree” and guarantor of security for the Czechoslovak state that had become popular again was based upon numerous more or less misleading sources. This study attempts to demonstrate that what was at stake here were not only results of the activity of Czechoslovak diplomacy in the 1930s, the activities of leftist intellectuals and their appurtenant organizations or the action of communist or even directly Soviet propaganda, but also Czech Russophilia.